


A Sponsor

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Bullying, Fairness, Friendship, Gen, Hazing, Pages' Wing, Sponsoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 10:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: Neal and Roald discuss who will sponsor Keladary of Mindelan.





	A Sponsor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [westernsunset](https://archiveofourown.org/users/westernsunset/gifts).



> Written for westernsunset as part of the Wishing Tree Event at Goldenlake.

A Sponsor 

Neal was reading a book borrowed from his father–a weighty tome about preventing women from bleeding out in childbirth because if he couldn’t study healing at the university, he could at least read about it during his last few hours of free time before he was inevitably assigned punishment work by Lord Wyldon to atone for his insolence–when knuckles rapped against his open door. Glancing over the spine, he had just enough time to wish that he had shut his door to discourage any interruptions when he saw that it was the prince in the doorway. 

“May I enter?” asked Roald, formal as ever. 

“Welcome to my humble lodgings, Your Highness. Please take any available seat.” Neal waved a hand at the only chair in the room, the hard wooden one by his desk that for once wasn’t filled with books and parchment. That would change as soon as lessons started, he was sure. It had always been that way at university: relative tidiness to begin a term, and complete clutter within days. 

“Thank you.” Roald settled somewhat stiffly into the seat Neal indicated. “I’m sorry to intrude on your last hours of free time, but I wanted to talk to you.” 

“I should hope that you didn’t intrude on my last hours of free time because you have nothing to say to me.” Neal risked a dry remark because he believed that he and Roald were friends as much as either of them had friends in the pages’ wing. Both of them held part of themselves aloof from the other pages, Neal because he couldn’t help but find the younger boys intellectually bankrupt compared to the company he had enjoyed at the university, Roald because he seemed to be of the opinion that any friendship could lead to accusations of unfairness. 

“I trust that you’ve heard a girl, Keladry of Mindelan, will be beginning page training tonight?” Roald had the habit of opening conversations with careful questions that made Neal, who hated hedging, impatient. 

“People buried under six feet of stone have heard that by now.” Neal saw no point in commenting that he had actually heard Keladry of Mindelan was to be placed on probation. Discussing Keladry of Mindelan’s probation around the son of the king who had consented to it might be a delicate topic. Contrary to his father’s opinion, Neal did have a sliver of tact even if he typically didn’t listen to its concerns. 

“She’ll need a sponsor.” Roald had apparently at last arrived at the reason he had interrupted Neal’s reading. “Someone open-minded enough to entertain new ideas. Somebody from an old bloodline to offset her vulnerability in being from a recently ennobled family.”

“Her best protector would be a noble prince like in the romances court ladies love.” Neal returned Roald’s sidelong look with a sharp glare that made it clear he didn’t intend to squander his last remaining hours of free time shepherding a new page–male or female–around the palace. 

“I can’t sponsor her.” A frown furrowed Roald’s forehead. “It’d look too biased if I sponsored her. You know that, Neal.” 

“Just because you’re a prince, doesn’t mean you have to be neutral all the time.” Neal scowled. “Besides, I can’t sponsor Keladry of Mindelan. Lord Wyldon won’t allow it since I’m still a first-year due to my late start last spring, remember?”

“You’re older than any other page, and you’ve lived in the palace all your life, so you’re familiar with its ways.” Roald spoke with a determination Neal rarely heard from him. “In the light of that, Lord Wyldon’s strict adherence to the rule of a sponsor needing to be at least a second-year would seem excessive to the point of irrationality.” 

“Very well.” If even Roald, who followed every written and unwritten rule to the letter, thought this was one he could convince Lord Wyldon to overlook, Neal felt he had run out of arguments. Sighing in defeat, he conceded, “I’ll volunteer to sponsor this Keladry of Mindelan if nobody else steps forward this evening.” 

Neal expected some of the tension in Roald’s face to relax at his agreement. Instead, Roald nibbled at his lip. “I worry that Joren or one of his crowd will offer to help her by sponsoring her.” 

“I can imagine the help that they would be quick to provide.” Neal snorted. Any help from Joren and his ilk would likely take the form of directions to the nearest convent to train as a court lady or incentives to return home. “To prevent my vivid imaginings from becoming reality, I’ll volunteer to sponsor her should no superior candidate step forward.” 

“Thank you. I’ll dine with you and Keladry of Mindelan as much as I’m able this year.” Roald inclined his head as he rose from the desk chair, and Neal smiled, recognizing this was as much friendship and favoritism as Roald would ever display toward him or Keladry of Mindelan.


End file.
